Sterling Memorial Library - Yale University

Description

The building, completed in 1930, was designed by James Gamble Rogers (Yale 1889) as a memorial to John William Sterling (Yale 1864), who donated much of his fortune to Yale. Sterling Memorial Library, which Rogers remarked was "as near to modern Gothic as we dared to make it," is made up of fifteen stack levels and eight floors of reading rooms, offices, and work areas. The collections, devoted primarily to the humanities and social sciences, are housed mainly in the bookstacks, which are open to those with a valid Yale picture identification card or a special visitor's access pass. Sterling's main public services and reading rooms are on the first and basement floors. Also on the basement level are a lounge and the entrance to the tunnel that connects Sterling to the Bass Library, where the intensive-use collection is housed. A major renovation of the bookstacks and several reading rooms was completed in 1998, as was the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, whose entrance is on Sterling's first floor.